Prime

Hi Bruce, Thanks for visiting the studio. Before we launch into your 5 questions why don't you tell us a little bit about your background and how you started Casabella ?

"Well, My family owned a hardware store and I ran it with my sister for about ten years. Then we went to Milan in 1985 and we found a mop that looked really different so we brought it to the United States and put it in the hardware store and they sold like crazy. So we bought a gross of them and they all sold out too. So we saw an opportunity and we saw that American companies was producing really lousy cleaning products - they were disposable, they were ugly, it seemed like there was no design thought to them. Our neighborhood at Third avenue and 9th street in Manhattan was becoming gentrified and there was a demand for better designed products so I started a business bringing in imported products from Italy - mostly cleaning products.

Then we had a great opportunity in real-estate so we closed the store and I needed something to do so I rented a loft in soho and I started selling the cleaning products to other retailers… my college roommate at that time started at Bed Bath and Beyond and they were something like 10 stores when they started and we sort of grew with them. They wanted commodity products that looked good and they weren't afraid to sell mops and brooms like a lot of department stores were so we grew with them and then we followed that wave of Italian design and European design in the 80’s and 90’s that was so prevalent. I miss those fun days and but thats how we started - it was really essentially an import business."

1. So, What are the main things that surprised you when you first got involved in product development?

"We started developing our own products  in the year 2000 when the dollar got very difficult and also running out of, running out of new ideas from Europe. I couldn't fuel the growth enough and the European way of cleaning was very different than the American way. So I hired a designer, Flavio (Fun fact - still the head of design at Casabella) and we started developing our own products.

To me the hardest thing in product development is the initial idea, it's not the design, the design is easy…I’m not belittling (laughing) what you do, your business at all, but to me I think its always about the idea. If this product is going to make a consumers life either better or easier or will it look better and that to me is that to me is the project, that to me is the challenge. The aesthetics to me, you know if your working with a good designer, that’s the easy part, I think the functional end of it is the toughest.At least in my business maybe not everybody's but in my business that is the hard part."

2. Has developing your own products made you more aware of the products you use on a daily basis?

You obviously care about the things you produce and you're very active in meetings - reviewing prototypes etc.. but, for example, do you step back when you're making your coffee in the morning and think about the design of your coffee maker ?

"A little bit. You know, I am not a clean freak like some people are and I’m not a big kitchen guy either. I do clean, I do the dishes while my wife cooks, I do look at ideas  for myself but I’ll be honest that doesn't generate ideas for me thinking as an end-user compared to other people that are passionate about cleaning or passionate about kitchen. You know if it was for purely me, I have a passion for yoga, so if it was for me I would love to develop men’s yoga clothes or something like that. I'm also a keen skier so I would love to design boots and skis and water skis, I like to keep active so that type of product excites me."

3. Bruce, knowing you as we do, you'll like this question. What are your pain points when working with designers?

Outside designers - Or inside designers ? Hmmmm, Pain points? So for me it’s an interesting question. I like designers to have passion and conviction about their idea BUT on the same token they need to understand when they’re heading in a wrong direction and sometimes their emotional attachment to their designs are so strong that the project doesn’t head the right way. So that’s a pain point to me  - that balance between the passion of the idea and but still being able to pivot if necessary.. I like designers to be passionate, I like designers to have conviction but I also want the designer to be able to take the criticism of the product. We hold these internal beat-up sessions, that’s actually what we call them. We beat up the idea, we really beat it up and I don't want the designers to feel beat up personally but I want the product to get beat up, People get emotional attached to the product and that’s not great, I get emotionally attached too but if I know the product won't sell well then I have to move on.

4. What media do you read or follow to keep current on development in your industry?

"What media do I do? Well…I read all the trade magazines, I get out and walk the stores.. I’m not a big design blog guy -people show me the design blogs if they see something interesting but its not in my day to day. The biggest inspiration comes when I travel around the world, I go to look at great design..Tokyo I think is the best city for that these days. I think the Japanese are by far the best.. I really do..the way they show design in the stores is far ahead of everybody else these days."

What newspapers or magazines do you read?

"Just about everything. I like dwell, I read the New York Times business section, sometimes the Wall St. Journal."

5. If you weren’t doing what you do now, what would be your dream job?

"That’s a great question. I actually really like what I do but I would love to find and develop a great new product and sell it online directly to the consumer. To develop a line like that would be the dream. I like product. I like the feel of product. I like great product. I like to be disruptive, I find it really interesting. I have so much respect for these companies that do that like Harry's and all the mattress companies you see now. "

And that's a wrap, Thanks Bruce.

Sneak Peek - Our first 2 products for Casabella - a patented dual headed dishbrush and a dispensing glass brush will be hitting the stores this Fall. Stay tuned.